256 Winchester Magnum - Why?

[Checkman]

Okay let's see if I have my facts straight. This round is a .357 magnum case necked down to a 25 caliber. Colt had planned to chamber the Python for this round, but it never happened for reasons that I can't find any information on. Then for a short while in the sixties Ruger and a couple other companies made models that would shoot it, but the production runs were small.

What advantage would this round have over the .357? I understand that it was capable of "considerable" velocity, but so what? what advantage would it have offered over the .357 in terms or stopping power and accuracy? Or was this round just part of the Magnum Fever that swept the shooting world in the fifties and sixties?

And why did Colt never come out with a Python for this round? Was there a problem with the forcing cone being eaten by a "torching" effect like the .357 Maximum or was the round too hard on the barreling etc?

I'm just curious about this round.

[Vern Humphrey]

It is the inability of anyone to answer your question that spelled the doom of the 256 Winchester.

Bottleneck cases don't do very well in revolvers, and this one was no exception.

[Mike Irwin]

The same reason the .22 Jet was developed....

A small caliber round with interesting ballistics.

Look at about 90% of the wildcats and even factory cartridges that have been developed over the last 100 years.

Most are completely redundant and largely mirror performanceo f rounds that already exist, yet we've still got them.

People just gotta invent.

[Standing Wolf]

Colt had planned to chamber the Python for this round, but it never happened for reasons that I can't find any information on.

Colt was always the kind of company that never got around to anything it hadn't already done before.

[BigG]

Ruger built a single shot pistol called the "Hawkeye" IIRC that had a breechblock that swung out like a revo but you stuck the ctg directly into the bbl after they found that the 256 would erode the forcing cone of their Blackhawk like a welding flame, again IIRC. People sometimes build things because they can, not because it's a good idea. The 256 was apparently one of those things. HTH

[B27]

The .256 was designed specifically for hunting, not defense.
It's intended use was for varmint hunting at fairly long ranges.
Same as the .221 Fireball.
The .221 is still around cause there are a few rifles chambered for it, along with the XP-100 and Contender pistols.
And because it has turned out to be unusually accurate.

[ECVMatt]

It is a great cat, racoon, oposum type of gun. One shot will take care of all nine lives of a cat. It is not noisy, no recoil, no muzzle flash. That being said. I can not comment on its use in a Hawkeye or similar guns. It is easy to make brass for and fun to shoot. That is all I ask for in a gun....

Matt

[tex_n_cal]

I am away from my Ruger references at the moment, but I believe Ruger learned at some point that the revolver cylinder tended to tie up with the bottlenecked case, when firing a high pressure round like the .256 WM. That is why they made a special version with a swinging breechblock. It was met with a big ho-hum by shooters, and the Hawkeye quickly died, only sought by Ruger collectors:D

If you think about it, both the Hawkeye and the S&W Jet revolvers were competing against the XP100 in .221 Fireball, which was a funny looking but awesome shooting pistol.

The .256 was also available in the Contender, but really wasn't much of a success otherwise. If you find one at a good price it would make a decent short range small game and varmint round.

[Joshua Hutchison]

you know......a coonan or DE chambered in .357 with a conversion barrel for it could be interesting....

[Larry Ashcraft]

When I was shooting IHMSA silhouette back in the early 80's, one of our competitors told me he had the perfect cartridge for a Contender, 256 Magnum, for production class. Low recoil, accurate, should be perfect...

Only problem was, it wouldn't knock the targets down. :D

[snubby]

It would have been a great success had Colt/Winchester named it the "257" (compare to "357"), instead of the "256." They just didn't see the harmony in a consistently-named cartridge!